The North Midlands police air support unit is proposing to move its maintenance provision to an organisation dedicated to police helicopters.  ECPM – the Eastern Counties Police Maintenance organisation – was established in April 2007 to provide aircraft engineering services to the Eastern Consortium (Essex, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk Forces). In mid-March 2011, ECPM was approached by the North Midlands ASU with regard to engineering coverage for one year to their Eurocopter EC135T2.  ECPM continues to operate at substantially reduced costs when compared to NPIA Framework prices for like-services supplied from industry.

The proposal will see ECPM being able to employ an additional full time, experienced, licensed and type rated engineer for all scheduled maintenance Inspections and most unscheduled events at no cost to the current consortium members over their current costs. The engineering availability in respect of hanger floor staff will increase by 25%, reducing the downtime for both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance for current consortium aircraft by 15%.

The proposal was published Monday 27th June, the day before the Cambridgeshire force announced their intentions to close their unit and join the Chiltern Police air support unit (see HeliHub.com article).  Quite where this leaves the North Midlands maintenance proposal is unknown, but it will throw out all the costings published by the Essex Police Authority in document EPA/125/11

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com